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I had already done a lot of the caches along nathanjhunt‘s epic trek from Burnham up to St Peter’s Chapel in Bradwell. I wanted to finish the series before the CO emigrated so I decided to tackle the remainder. As you know, roads and footpaths are few and far out here, so it was difficult to decide where to park.🤔 In the end, I opted for the parking place recommended for the COs multi **All Locked Up** and head out from there. Here’s how the day went.
I parked up at seven thirty and walked up to the search area for the multi but had a couple of technical issues so continued to walk east out to the sea wall. Once I got there, I had another decision, left or right, north or south, as I had as many caches to find in each direction. Whatever I did, I would have to get the final one and then turn and walk back along the sea wall.
It was cloudy which was good, and dry, which was even better.😀 There’s not going to be loads of commentary as it’s one foot in front of the other watching where I’m going on the sea wall, hoping for some avifauna to brighten things up. All the caches out here were trads. I quickly found The Sunken Barge and then continued south picking up the Desolate Tree plus the Howe and then the Grange Outfall caches.
My pace had quickened up after finding the Essex nathanjhunt-dred cache and I soon collected the Bridgwick Pumping Station and the Marsh Monster caches. I was now at the southerly point of my trek. I rested for a few minutes to think about the task ahead. It was now nine forty nine and I had been walking for just over two hours. It was six kilometres up to the next one on my list - Sunken Barges Two, how long will it take me to get there?
Well it took me one hour and eighteen minutes to walk up to the Sunkening. It was only a short stroll up to The Crossroad and then the On The Way To St Peters which was going to be my last going north.
I was now heading back to the car but I still had to sort out the All Locked Up multi on the way back. I had found all the info to work out the coords but I hadn’t been able to extract one vital piece at the first stage. Once I had that in hand, I found that I had to crawl under a low bridge next to the river and extract the log sheet in a precarious position. Luckily I stayed dry.😀
Back at the car, my next target was the Are You Afraid Of The Dark cache up near the Bradwell Bird Observatory. I needed waders for this one and luckily they were in the boot. Once I was at the car park for the St Peter’s Chapel, I set off on a well travelled track for about a mile out to the water filled pillbox to complete the task. This was absolutely great fun.
Back at the car, it was time for a rest so I stopped at The Cricketers pub for coffee and cake. Chatting to the landlord, it turned out that he was from Basildon and although we had never met, we had so many mutual friends from Basildon and Laindon. How strange was that? 🤔
I eventually tore myself away and drove up to the Village Lock Up multi Near the church. I sorted out the coords and had to drive up to the search area. After this, I visited the War Memorial with its Mosquito monument and then went for the nearby trad. Now it was time to say goodbye to Bradwell and work my way home. I found the VS Asheldham mystery and drove down to the Cow Piece Reserve trad.
I wanted to finish up in North Fambridge so I sorted out the cunningly hidden Ferryman’s Ghost trad and then drove up to the Billy Goat’s Nemesis trad. here for this one. I parked up on the corner of Hainault Drive and walked about a mile from there. The cache was a clever placement but everything was waterlogged. I drained all the water out and managed to sign the log. This was the last cache of the day. 👍🏻
For the record, I walked 36,893 steps and 18 miles today. 🤫
1 Mystery 2 Multi 16 Traditional
#9218